Saturday, 25 February 2017

Hell, Hull and Halifax

“From Hell, Hull and Halifax may the Good Lord deliver us!”
That memorable farewell phrase employed by 16th century thieves was
quoted at me just two weeks ago when I told a friend that I planned to take a
day trip to Hull. “Why would you want to go there?” he asked, forgetting that
“there” is the nominated City of Culture for 2017 (or he may have been simply incredulous
of the nomination). The point is that Hull’s reputation has been sullied in
perpetuity by the fact that it once had a notoriously nasty gaol – and a
wickedly good catchline with which to advertise it: there must have been other
towns with equally awful gaols at the time but who remembers them?

Hull, or King’s Town upon
Hull as it was originally named in the 13th century (such was its
importance as an international trading port), has seen its fortunes wax and
wane over time. In recent decades the decline of its once prosperous fishing
industry has been the cause of unemployment and deprivation. Civic pride was
also bruised by the subsequent loss of identity and the impression of Hull as a
miserable place thus perpetuated. The idea of a day-trip would not have sprung
readily to my mind then. Like so many other cities, it has discovered the need
to rejuvenate itself by establishing new industries for its economic base: and
cultural tourism may turn out to be an important part of that. After all, history
oozes from the Georgian bricks of the Old Town, as it does from the grand
architecture of the late 19th century buildings sitting gracefully
in the wide streets of the adjacent City Centre, where they accommodate some of the numerous museums.

And what of Halifax? It too
has impressive city-centre architecture and, most remarkably, the magnificent
Piece Hall, the famed market place built in 1779 by its cloth merchants and
manufacturers and now a monument to 800 years of hand-woven textile production
in the area. However, the part of Halifax to which thieves referred was the
public square in which was erected a gibbet, an early form of guillotine, for
the purpose of beheading those who stole more than 13 pennies worth of the
precious textiles produced thereabouts. I suppose clever thieves would have
taken care to steal less valuable lengths of cloth but, since the gibbet was
operational for more than a hundred years, it seems there were not many
attentive learners. Cromwell eventually put a stop to its use, though a replica
is still in situ – more a curiosity than a deterrent, I suppose. I haven’t been
to Halifax lately but the Piece Hall, having undergone restoration, is soon to
open as a visitor attraction containing boutiques, cafes etc. From little acorns...

Reputations are difficult
to shake off: the passage of time does not necessarily erode them. Sometimes
they just become entrenched in the psyche and nothing will dislodge them.
Manchester, for example, is known as Rainy City despite the fact that there are
seven other British cities with higher average rainfall. Some people like to
believe what suits them, regardless of fact, as the recent election of Donald
Trump seems to show: and a catchy slogan, such as make
America great again, as has been demonstrated, only helps to
reinforce their belief. I guess it’s a lazy substitute for thinking.

Where there is evidence of
change, we ought to look again at our preconceptions. Hull and Halifax have
changed and their reputations deserve serious re-calibration, especially given
their historical importance to the commercial foundations of modern Britain. As
for Hell, however, there is no evidence that it even exists, so I am quite
happy to leave its dreadful reputation in the hands of the believers.